Re: Is it worth to replace the Fuze stock ear phones with expensive ones?

The ear buds provided with the e200 had cool silicone jacketing on the cables, and their thin shape actually fits very well on both my ears and my wife's. For out-of-the-box, they are excellent.

SanDisk could provide a headphone like a rebadged Air Cushion, for example, but the increased price would be an issue, plus you'll always have listeners that have different tastes.

For the listener with microphonics on the Sennheisers, simply loop the cables OVER your ears, instead of dangling them directly. This is wonderful for all IEM type headphones. The ear supports the weight of the lead and reduces the noise from tugging cables.

Re: Is it worth to replace the Fuze stock ear phones with expensive ones?

There are some good inexpensive earphones such as the Sennheiser MX400 that cost only around $10 or so. The Sennheiser CX300 at under $30 is a good value. The problem with isolating earphones is that they block outside sound. While this might be good in some circumstances, it might be dangerous in others.

Re: Is it worth to replace the Fuze stock ear phones with expensive ones?

@JK98 wrote:There are some good inexpensive earphones such as the Sennheiser MX400 that cost only around $10 or so. The Sennheiser CX300 at under $30 is a good value. The problem with isolating earphones is that they block outside sound. While this might be good in some circumstances, it might be dangerous in others.

So are earbuds like the Sennheiser MX400 good as the Sennheiser CX300 Canal Phones? I wanna listen to something that makes me say "WOW!" compared to the standard earbuds that come with the Sansa Fuze.

Re: Is it worth to replace the Fuze stock ear phones with expensive ones?

The Sennheiser MX460 is said to be a bit bright bright and bass deficient. The MX500 is said to give more more bass and not be as bright. The newer MX560 might be a better choice than the MX460 if you can't fing the MX400 or MX500. The MX560 is around $20-25 though. For the price(around $15?), some people like the JVC Air Cushion earphones. I haven't heard it. The Koss Sportapro(around $20) is a good value in in compact headphones. The Sennheiser PX100 folding headphones(around $40) has received great reviews.

Re: Is it worth to replace the Fuze stock ear phones with expensive ones?

@JK98 wrote:The Sennheiser MX460 is said to be a bit bright bright and bass deficient. The MX500 is said to give more more bass and not be as bright. The newer MX560 might be a better choice than the MX460 if you can't fing the MX400 or MX500. The MX560 is around $20-25 though. For the price(around $15?), some people like the JVC Air Cushion earphones. I haven't heard it. The Koss Sportapro(around $20) is a good value in in compact headphones. The Sennheiser PX100 folding headphones(around $40) has received great reviews.

I can confirm the JVC Air Cushions are some of the best in the sub $50 range. Sound great, lots of fit options and they are better at supressing cable noise (noise from rubbing/bumping the cables) than most in this price range. All in-ears will have issues with cable noise, but the JVCs aren't too bad.

Re: Is it worth to replace the Fuze stock ear phones with expensive ones?

I would definitely recommend an earphone upgrade for the Fuze, in fact I bought a new pair 2 days after getting my player! While it doesn't have a true line-out jack, output through the headphone jack sounds great through a good set of desktop computer speakers, and even better through an old, but very high quality analog home stereo setup! So this player definitely has a good bit of potential and sounds great, but with the stock earbuds its a bit like trying to watch a blu-ray movie with a 7 inch black and white tv. MicroSD cards, cases, chargers and the like can wait, these buds are awful!

I also found the stock earbuds to be very uncomfortable. Maybe I just have strangely shaped ears, but I've found all conventionally shaped earbuds to have a loose and inconsistent fit, and not that comfortable. As the stock Fuze earbuds are a little larger, they were even harder to keep in place, and I found them to be downright painful! Which means I can't relax (b/c they hurt), can't be moving much at all (or they fall out), and they sound terrible.

I can't afford $100 or even $50 premium earbuds, and a larger set of headphones kinda kills the portability factor. After a bit of searching I came across the best of all worlds (for me), in the Philips SHS8000. They are a high quality set of in-ear canal buds with nice soft rubber cones (in 3 different sizes, so you can find the perfect fit to seal your ears), but instead of having to jam them into your ears to keep them in place, they are supported by soft rubber hooks over the top of your ears, but made of a much softer material than the hard clips with on-ear phones. So they fit great and are so comfortable you often forget they are there, and seal perfectly. All this with no effective size penalty, as the wires pass through the soft hooks, so you can just wrap the hooks around your player when you store it. Sound quality is a huge improvement over the stock buds (check the link for specs), with much more clarity, more range than you'll even need, and enough volume that I've never had to turn my Fuze's volume up past 2/3, even in loud settings.

But my favorite part is their ability to overcome the biggest complaint of in-ear headphones: deafness to the outside world. When shoved all the way into your ear, they make a perfect seal, and in fact I sometimes wear them as earplugs just for the peace and quiet. But if you are in a setting where you want your music, but also want to be able to tell when someone is speaking to you (or any other important noise, for that matter), you can just pull them out and add a few more notches of volume. Thanks to the hooks, the drivers will just sit right outside of your ear canals, delivering quality sound without sealing you off from everything else. Honestly, its very similar to on-ear headphones in function, so kudos for versatility!

All in all, these Philips are a great value at only 30 bucks at Target. Certainly you can find higher quality sound with more expensive choices (and possibly at the same, I haven't listened to them all), but I have yet to find the sound quality or volume lacking in any way. So you certainly won't be missing anything. I have yet to find a set of earbuds at ANY price point that are truly MORE comfortable and MORE versatile than these are. These will NEVER fall out on their own (and rarely even if you yank the cord), and are comfortable enough to forget they're even there, whether sleeping, running, snowboarding, or whatever. And its great to be able to pull the plugs out and just let them hang so you can hear other things. Throw all these features and great sound into a single package for 30 bucks, and I see no reason to spend more.